Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/121

 HARVEY JEWELL.

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��the Historical Society, not long since, by one of its most valued members. Mrs. Jewell and two daughters survive, residing in the home in Boston where the deceased husband and father enjoyed so many years in his domestic circle, and where his love of books had been gratified in the gathering of a large and well-selected library.

Mr. Jewell inherited a natural taste and aptitude for politics, but he never was a politician at the expense of the sacrifice of any principle to the least degree. He was of the class of men who elevate politics, and he honored the positions to which he was chosen or appointed.

As a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, he was for several years chairman of the judiciary committee, and while in that important position every bill which passed through the hands of the committee received his careful attention. He had a pecu- liar aptitude for discovering at sight anything in a measure before the leg- islature which should not be permitted to pass the committee or the house. And afterward, during the four years in which he rendered such signal ser- vice as Speaker, this trait proved of great value to the Commonwealth.

In 1875 he was appointed by Presi- dent Grant one of the judges of the court of commissioners of Alabama claims. Thirty years' practice in a commercial seaboard city had given him large acquaintance with maritime laws, and his practical knowledge, dis- criminating good sense and legal train- ing, made him an excellent judge, and his appointment proved in every re- spect eminently creditable.

From the results of his large prac- tice he accumulated a fortune which he had securely invested. Though always a busy man, he achieved as much real enjoyment in life as any man of his years. By this I mean he obtained the most from life, by proper and rational enjoyment, with- out indulgences which in any sense

��interfered' with his habits of industry, and the devotion to his professional and other duties. He was extremely fond of fishing, and of late years was in the habit of taking no little enjoy- ment in his vacation in seasons devot- ed to the pleasures of angling.

He wore his political honors grace- fully, ever preferring the success of the principles of the party with which he affiliated, to any personal advance- ment. Indeed, he was as unselfish in his political as he was unspotted in his private life.

He was a gentleman in all his in- stincts, of fine manly bearing, com- manding presence and genial manners.

His success, after his admission to the bar, was early assured, and he rapidly rose to eminence in his pro- fession, and in social and business circles merited and received the con- fidence and esteem of his fellow citi- zens.

But what we of New Hampshire most delight to contemplate in Mr. Jewell's career, is that early determina- tion to acquire knowledge, that devo- tion to fixed principles which carried him along the pathway to success ; his early struggles, now teaching an even- ing sinking school at Pembroke or Concord, to gain the means of attain- ing a collegiate education, and then in Boston, as an instructor in the public schools, devoting every spare hour to the study of a profession of which he was afterward a shining ornament.

It is of this material that our state has so liberally contributed to her sis- ter states, supplying that constan: de- mand for our great staple — men. And while in nearly every state of the Union have been men who have gone from New Hampshire to fill high and honored positions in those states, few, if any, have been more worthy of the constant esteem in which they have been held, or more deserving of our state pride, than has been the subject of this paper.

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